STRONG EDUCATION AND TRAINING The Georgia Composite Medical Board provides free access to searchable database listings profiling Georgia’s 41,000 licensed medical professionals including which school they attended, when and where they completed their residency training, any specialty board certifications, disciplinary actions, criminal offenses and medical malpractice judgments. Mike Lipscomb, MD, an emergency room doctor at North Fulton Hospital and a physician with Apollo MD, believes that doctors at the top of their fields have solid educational and training foundations to draw upon as they practice medicine. But Lipscomb also offered a warning. “I wouldn’t put much weight on the big-name schools,” he explained, noting that tuition expenses at these elite schools can reach more than $50,000 per year, making them unrealistic options for many medical students. “Many state schools are less than a third of this,” he continued. “High price doesn’t correlate to a better education. Some of the best physicians I know went to large state universities for school, and they made the choice to come out with as little debt as possible.” “And I wouldn’t put much stock in research,” he said. “Being good in the lab doesn’t necessarily correlate to being clinically competent.”
"Being good in the lab doesn't necessarily correlate to being clinically competent." MIKE LIPSCOMB, MD at North Fulton Hospital and physician with Apollo MD
APPLYING EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE
"Experience plays a key role when the need is more technical in nature or when decisions need to be made quickly in an emergency situation." ADEDAPO ODETOYINBO, MD, SFHM, Chief medical officer and director of hospital medicine at Emory Johns Creek Hospital
“When seeking a physician for myself or family, I regard credentials as a bare minimum and the physician’s experience as a second layer, depending on the nature of care required,” remarked Adedapo Odetoyinbo, MD, SFHM, chief medical officer and director of hospital medicine at Emory Johns Creek Hospital. “Experience plays a key role when the need is more technical in nature or when decisions need to be made quickly in an emergency situation. More important to me than research itself is the physician’s ability to integrate research results and evidence-based medicine into their everyday practice.” Odetoyinbo refers to the doctor’s practical ability to decipher a puzzle — to select pieces of knowledge from his or her education and experiences, then correctly apply them to the situation at hand. In the physician’s pursuit to protect and restore a patient’s well being, knowledge enhances reasoning and rational decision-making. Experts agree that some doctors are simply better than others at applying what they know. pointsnorthatlanta.com | June 2014 | Points North
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